The present invention relates to transferring data in a diverse file system landscape.
Many companies and institutions support diverse computing system landscapes. For example, in large businesses, legacy computing systems and legacy software can co-exist with modern computing systems and modern software. As another example, some educational institutions support computing labs with International Business Machines-compatible personal computers, Apple-compatible personal computers, and UNIX-based computers. Differences across a diverse computing system landscape can include, for example, differences in operating systems, network protocols, and file systems.
Some computing systems integrate aspects of different computing systems into a single computing system. For example, International Business Machines, of Armonk, N.Y.; (“IBM”) has developed a series of computing systems known as the iSeries (also referred to as the Application System/400 (“AS/400”)—the name given to the iSeries computing systems before being re-branded to the iSeries), which supports a file system known as the Integrated File System (“IFS”). The iSeries' IFS integrates different file systems, such as the library file system, which was traditionally used by AS/400 series computing systems, and a file system referred to as the root file system, which is similar to an Operating System/2 (“OS/2”) file system that was developed by IBM.
Differences among different computing system aspects can result in peculiarities when they are integrated. One of the peculiarities of the different file systems in the iSeries is that Integrated Language Environment (“ILE”) programs written in the library file system cannot be transferred, in their native format, into or outside of a library file system that is part of an IFS.
However, integration of different computing systems aspects can be advantageous. For example, by integrating the library file system and the root file system, iSeries computers can run both legacy ILE programs written in the library file system and modern Advanced Interactive eXecutive (“AIX”; AIX is a UNIX-based operating system) programs that can be run from the root file system.